Why People Stick Around as Long as They Do

It is also the day for the Aftermath Meet Up in downtown Clearwater at 5pm. Not sure if we will be in any shape to be doing a posting tomorrow morning, so if there is nothing, don’t be alarmed it will be for a good reason. Spent a great evening with Aaron and Heather Smith-Levin, Marc and Claire Headley, Nathan Rich, Tara Reile and Mary and David Kahn last night as a pre-event warm-up. Hope to be meeting with many more people this evening! Some are flying from out of town — two notables include the wonderful Len Zinberg and the next Mayor of Hemet, Erin Plumb.

Why People Stick Around as Long as They Do

Someone commented recently that nobody is forced to stay in Scientology; that anyone can leave whenever they want. Yes… But…

You’re Responsible

People stick around in Scientology for many reasons. One could argue that foremost among these is, as L. Ron Hubbard promoted, people are responsible for their own condition. Simply put, they choose to stay. Although this is true, LRH scattered many traps throughout Scientology, and followers are bombarded with tech and policy disguised to keep them tethered at every step of their journey up the Bridge.

Apply it at Your Own Risk

Per the Code of Honor, one is instructed to “Never desert a group to which you owe your support,” and “Never withdraw allegiance once granted.” Within Scientology this means that if a person leaves the organization, they’re committing a huge overt.

From the time a person first enters the world of green-on-white (all Scientology policy is printed with green ink on white paper), it’s drilled into their heads that there is no more ethical group in the world than that one they’ve joined. Walking away would not only violate one of LRH’s more famous adages, “the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics,” leaving the church is a high crime and an overt. Telling someone other than an ethics officer that one’s thinking of leaving the group is tantamount to a crime against humanity and apt to get him declared and expelled.

Leaving the Church of Scientology for whatever reason is not simply “leaving,” it’s blowing; it’s not ethical, and as everyone knows who’s subscribed to Hubbardian doctrine for any length of time, people blow because of their overts—especially, those crimes they’ve committed against the organization they’re leaving. And thus, LRH led people to believe that people must have overts against Scientology to consider walking away.

Us Against the World

LRH created an “us versus them” mentality with regards to Scientology and the rest of the world. Scientologists have the tech and policy. Those poor souls on the outside don’t. Scientologists are “homo novi.” Everyone else is a “wog.”

The more Scientology courses that people do and the more Scientology nomenclature they absorb and use, the wider becomes this divide.

Purpose

As the Church of Scientology has been tasked with clearing the planet and setting man free, LRH elevated the word “purpose” to unprecedented levels of importance. Smaller, personal purposes pale in comparison.

Therefore, stepping away from Scientology can be tough for anyone who believes that using LRH tech and policy is the only viable strategy for saving Earth and mankind.

Knowing the Technology is Correct

Further complicating the decision to leave Scientology—or any other cult—is their policy prohibiting people from discussing the efficacy of its doctrine. Per LRH’s most famous bulletin, Keeping Scientology Working, his tech is correct and one hundred percent workable. People are taught that the only reason it wouldn’t work as expected is due to people having gone past misunderstood words while studying it. Pure and simple. There are no other reasons per church dogma. (Except of course, overts.)

Members are allowed to talk about how great Scientology is. But that’s about it. Church goers are constantly bombarded with glowing reports from management and others on how great the tech is and how applying policy will soar their stats.

Scientologists aren’t allowed to discuss their true thoughts and feelings, thus, preventing them from realizing that friends and relatives inside the church have similar misgivings. This suppressed communication makes it more difficult for Scientologists to process thorny issues and make informed decisions—like whether to stick around or get the hell out of Dodge.

Sign Here on the Dotted Line

Unlike working at “wog” businesses, Scientologists are required to sign a contract when they join staff. Mission and Class 5 org staff sign two and half or five year contracts; intrepid souls joining Sea Org sign up for a mere billion years.

Not only do these contracts make it psychologically harder for people to leave, staff are told they’ll have to pay back the cost of all the training and processing they received if they do.

Today, many green card-carrying Sea Org members risk deportation back to whichever eastern European country they came from, adding another layer of hardship for those wishing to leave.

It’s one thing to walk away from Ted’s House of Pets after fulfilling a “two week notice.” It’s a whole other ball of fur to break a Scientology contract.

[Ed Note: scientologists of all types, not just staff or Sea Org members are required to sign contracts to participate in scientology, to give money, to not ask for their files and even more draconian agreements when they get to the OT levels]

It’s Ruining my Life!

People stay in Scientology to handle “ruins” caused by thousands—if not millions—of hidden traumatic incidents preventing them from lives they’ve only dreamed of leading. Rarely do these ruins get “handled.” Instead, parishioners are forced to wade deep into the OT Levels and shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to take care of these ruins that were supposed to have been dealt with years ago on the lower echelons of the Bridge. And even then, they don’t always get handled.

Not to worry! Highly trained Scientology registrars are always nearby to remind those seeking salvation that their ruin will be handled for sure on their next level—that all the anguish and pathos they’re experiencing is simply the siren call of the next level of the Grade Chart. If they leave now, they’ll never get another chance at going free. No one else has the “correct” tech and policy to handle what’s ruining their life.

Fear

For many, the longer they stay in Scientology, the deeper grows their fear of life and the outside world. LRH drilled into people’s heads that the world is a dangerous place. If the psychs don’t get you committed, the IRS will steal all your money. If you don’t develop cancer and die because of your association with the SP at work, you’ll be gunned down by some nutcase high on some synthetic psychedelic prescribed by the Dr. Goodfeel.

As I’ve written before, many Scientologists are what LRH called Theetie-Weetie, walking the streets masked in a gleeful, blissful façade, pretending everything in life is safe and joyful, when in reality, they’re afraid of everything—especially change and trying something new—like talking to a “suppressive” who used to be their best friend, or leaving an organization they know deep down ran off the rails years ago.

“Look at that Wall”

The Survival Rundown teaches students not only how to control people, but that it’s okay to be controlled by others. In one drill, students are asked to “contribute to that motion,” further reinforcing the hypnotic suggestion that Scientology—the group—must be contributed to above all others.

And therefore, being manipulated by supervisors, registrars, auditors, and ethics personnel is actually a good thing. These smiling staff only have your best interests at heart—especially the aforementioned Reg. One of the last things a good Scientologist wants to do is disappoint these hard working friends.

Commitment

From the first course in an org or mission, Scientology promotes the concept of commitment. For only by committing oneself to LRH and the church will one eventually achieve spiritual freedom. This commitment is enforced by strict scheduling and course room rules, and signed pledges prior to auditing. Deviations warrant a quick trip to ethics to get straightened out.

It’s a tough world out there and “only the tigers survive.” So if you want to be cause over life, you had better adhere to Ron’s guidelines and gut-out climbing up the Grade Chart.

Heartbreak Hill

Last, but certainly not least, all Scientologists know that their connection with family and friends will be severed if they leave and are declared a suppressive person. However David Miscavige and the church try to downplay this mad policy, compulsory disconnection is applied with cold and heartless indifference—more often than not, by a pimply-faced staff with an immature and underdeveloped empathy toward others.

Regardless of their disagreements with tech, policy, and management, many “Scientologists” stick around simply as a way to stay connected to their sons and daughters or fathers and mothers.

Last Words

Sure, no one physically “forces” anyone to stay in Scientology. Outside of international headquarters, there are no locked doors, gates, or armed guards at orgs and missions—as far as I know. That said, the church makes it damn hard for anyone to leave who’s been inside for more than a few weeks. Throughout one’s involvement, insidious traps have been laid to convince members that, one way or the other, staying aligned with Scientology is the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics—and their only way “out.”

Comments

There’s also “eternity” – which seems to be a strong hook, at least for some: the idea that if a thetan doesn’t take advantage of Scientology offering the first chance in a trillion years to free themselves from a continual cycle of implants and other enslavements in lifetime after lifetime, their immortal and powerful spirit will be enslaved forevermore through countless future lives. It’s like threatening (which it effectively is) a Christian with never again having a chance to go to heaven, and instead being condemned to spend eternity in hell; or a Buddhist or HIndu with never again having the chance to (re-)incarnate as anything more than a beast of burden.

I’ve written before about how Dianetics and Scientology auditing can be conclusively shown to use processes producing what is now known as false memory syndrome
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory_syndrome), in which under suggestive or hypnotic conditions (which auditing sets up), convincing-seeming, but entirely spurious and fabricated “memories” or imaginings are elicited, mixing below-conscious memories (childhood events, stories hears and movies seen) with the imaginative mechanisms of the brain (as experienced in dreams). This is the same phenomenon that lead to childrens’ infamous false and fabulistic allegations of satanic ritual abuse by preschool staff, after being subject to questioning and supposed therapy that was subtly suggestive and leading. Such false memories of past lives in Scientology make the idea of reincarnation and a certain control over the process seem real, including going into supposed future incarnations.

I think this is really insidious, and the closest thing to real “brainwashing,” getting people to believe a false narrative about their past (including, also, early childhood memories that may be distorted or wrong) and then act on it to the detriment of their interests in the present lifetime, and to the advantage of Scientology’s interests including control and the accumulation of wealth.

On a similar note, I’m reminded that some people are lead to believe (or lead themselves to believe) that “Scientology saved my life” – as if it weren’t for Scientology, they would have ended up (or remained on) “psych” drugs, and surely thrown themselves off a bridge or something. That, of course, is also a speculative and unlikely construct. And I notice that phrase coming up in the stories told of people who said that while they were in Scientology, who did end up dead anyway – often more or less directly the result of Scientology dissuading them from getting proper treatment for a mental or physical illness.

p.s. I don’t entirely discount the possibility of actual past life recollections, or reincarnation – it’s just that Scientology is provably engaged in a process that consistently produces false and spurious results; and if they might possibly have hit upon a bit of truth or the rare authentic result, it’s accident as much as anything. Hubbard chose a particularly egoistic and even materialistic theory of reincarnation; I suspect that if anything does ever prove to be true, it will be something more like the old, competing idea of the Akashic record (with which Hubbard would surely have been familiar), more like a collective or species memory and something that would probably fit better with the direction of current discoveries in science and physics. A collective model at least is theoretically superior because it accounts for the glaring and long-known anomalies of supposed individual past life recollections, that they can overlap in time (for example, someone supposedly recalling being someone who drowned on the Titanic in 1912, and also a 20-something flapper when the stock market crashed in 1929), or involve multiple people having supposed recollections of being the same historic figure (Napoleon, Cleopatra, Jesus, etc.).

False memory syndrome doesn’t explain peak, transcendental, religious, paranormal and a host of other “spiritual” experiences millions of people have had. I suppose they could all be put in a box labelled “Effects of Chemical Release in the Brain”.

TC, I always enjoy your thought-provoking articles even if or when I disagree with a point or two.

As re the Code of Honor, there are no stipulations to follow it. At the bottom there’s a caveat that states that the Code of Honor is for “luxury use”, i.e. the individual decides when or if any point in it can, should or could be used. In other words, the Code of Honor was intended for self-determined usage in any given situation or to handle any particular problem. It is not a moral code, and that it is not a moral code is stated very clearly. Just saying.

As I’ve noted before, Hubbard’s “responsible for” is actually a slippery replacement to his intended “to blame for…” Everyone, whether they’re are willing to take it on, is RESPONSIBLE for one’s own life. This deliberate misuse of the word was/is a huge trap unto itself.

I got into the SO prior to the no LSD rule (77-9?). I stayed because if I left, I could never get back in because I’d taken LSD. My husband and two out of 5 children were in the SO. As it turned out I got kicked out (given 15 mins to gather belongings). This became a big problem with husband still in. That was 21 years ago and I’m finding out what a favor Jenny Linson did for me.

The post Vietnam War era in the 1970s was a time when millions of people had become disillusioned with The Man, The Suits, The Establishment. This was the so called counter culture. Experimenting with psychedelics gave many people a new perspective but never provided an ultimate destination. Scn seemed to provide that destination.

Nobody I knew regarded scn as their religion. It was a guise to fend off The Man from appropriating taxes to spend on evil purposes. The “my religion” angle seems to have become a greater part of the indoctrination in later years. I believed that eventually everyone should become a scn-ist which would result in a better world so in effect it was my faith but I never realized it as such until I was out. That hope or expectation might be a reason some people stuck around. I was probably more interested in my own advancement but I still felt I was providing a good deed to the world in general.

Richard,
I entered scio after an army tour in Korea from 1969-1970. I became part of the counter culture circling around the world and the United States for a few years. Hubbard did offer an alternative but I did not realize how screwed up he was. It was my faith for a number of years but he never delivered.

George – I didn’t know about your travels after you left the military. I thought you just became a regular mainstream square. It seems there’s always an us and a them. The “heads” (pot heads) and the “straights” (mainstream conformists). I always worked for a living so I was never a full blown hippy living off the fat of the land.

Idle Morgue – I assume you mean my scn experience. I was single when I left in 1982 and didn’t have any disconnection or bancruptcy. I never looked back on scn until watching Going Clear and wasn’t aware of the fair gaming and other inequities going on in the organization even in my time. With that said I can look back at it for myself as an interesting and worthwhile life experience, unlike many others who got beat up by the organization.

A never-in university psychology professor on another blog said she thought scn auditors could become good psychologists. She said many of the lower level concepts in scn cross reference mainstream psychology.

Richard, I NEVER thought about it that way! As my religion? No way! It was something I DID for my betterment and then for the betterment of others. For 25 years. And something I believed I’d ALWAYS do.. But as for it being my RELIGION? Slit my throat! No freaking way! I don’t believe in organized religion – for myself. Never have! For others, fine, for me, NEVER!

My best friend is a realist and an atheist. I keep my “spiritual” notions to myself so they don’t freak him out. A couple of times I mentioned one or two and he just looked at me with a WTF?? look on his face. He worries I’m still stuck in Scientology.

Richard, atheists take a NON scientific position on God and the like. They make an assumption about which they can have no real data. That is the OPPOSITE approach that science takes to such a question.

Hi Wynski – My friend and his wife took a guided tour of Stonehenge last year. The guide had a pair of right angled wires in his hands and when he walked through a certain area the wires started spinning. My skeptical friend asked if he could try it and the guide said okay. The wires also spun in my friend’s hands. I didn’t persue his thoughts on it but he probably chalked it up to “earth science”.

Richard, for the record, I’m not an atheist! I know there’s something – for lack of a better term! Call it God, call it whatever! I believe, feel, know, and have experienced that there’s something beyond our five senses. I just don’t like or trust organized religion to “deliver” whatever this is to me. Organized religion purports to have answers that MUST be believed, “paths” one MUST follow – OR ELSE! Organized religions are ALL the same in that its THEIR WAY or the Highway, aka whatever they consider eternal perdition. No Thank You to Organized religion. And as for Christianity, I’d rather do my best to LIVE the Christian principles than to BE a Christian, which, nowadays means aligning oneself with Christian Reich. And that’s not a typo.

Terra, thanks for this article, it’s really good and I’m going to save it somewhere – I’d love to be able to show this to people sometime and use it as a tool in explaining things. It’s a great outline and each paragraph a topic of great importance.

I like the short and concise paragraphs, how you didn’t get into all kinds of extra detail, and I like how it hits many key parts of the trap.

…
As I continue to step back and recover my own self, I find I am getting a more and more “outsider” type view of Scn, and with that view it can seem even more impossible to ever explain to people the grip scn has and how that comes about.

Ah! Well. I suppose it’s rather boring reading all this stuff of people moaning about how bad it all was and massaging their mutual out-rudiments – so let’s have another or rather a few contrary viewpoints (from me that is) and then suddenly all the interest peps up! Katherine InCali can pipe up again and send a few deprecating words about my ego in my direction and of course Wynski loves all this sort of thing!

Now again, as last week there are some truths in what Terra says – he can’t publish a whole article based on nonsense or lies as such would be too obvious even for the “outraged” commenters, although he has come close on quite a few occasions, and which when such has occurred other commenters than me have pointed out in an effort to reduce the embarrassment of them! The only thing is of course is that there quite a few information booby traps in among them. So I will take them up, one after the other.

1. The idea of being “tethered”: Well, ok, somewhat true, but then where else is one going to get the results offered (at least) in Scientology? One tethers oneself does one not, because there is no other spiritual therapy that offers the same “thing”, is there? Or if so, then Scientology would have a competitor in this area, but there isn’t, is there? Please advise of them otherwise.

2. “People blow because of their overts”. Now if one reads the HCOB called Blow-Offs this explains the vast majority of Blows, but there are 2 extremes also listed in the same HCOB – that of being too pampered causing an out-exchange and that of being treated so badly that one has no choice – e.g. if one is a prisoner of the Gestapo one is hardly likely to write up one’s overts on Gestapo torturers after blowing from the Gestapo prison. So the full (Hubbard) idea is not presented in Terra’s description here. Terra’s text also does not entail the idea that if the group changes its ethos radically then one is not leaving the same group. An (albeit) exaggerated example would be if Scientology as a group suddenly said “we are now delivering ECT instead of auditing!” And I doubt very much that even Hubbard could foresee what became of Scientology after his death. So I, or rather Hubbard, is giving you an “out” here, and that may well be true, especially people who knew what the scene was before 1982 or so. So you can relax a bit and not write up so many O/Ws eh?

3. The “us against the world” idea. Well, a little bit true, but nowhere near the emphasis that Terra has placed on it. I don’t recall regarding “wogs” as sub-humans or whatever is implied. In fact the care for all PCs at the Org was paramount and the amount of compassion and empathy was very high in my opinion and my friend’s opinions. And if the PC wins then we all win anyway. If that (compassion) has changed, and I believe unfortunately that it has over the decades, then it shouldn’t be so. But then that is not “Scientology” but an altered ethos of it. All PCs were “new” at one point, even me!

4. “Purpose”: Well ok, but what else or other group or technology are you going align yourself with? Answers on a postcard please.

5. As I have discovered on here time and time again, the ideas that some people have about the “technology” represents such a departure from what it actually should be or is that they have no grounds for complaint if they alter it, which they have done, big time. Now we had a big thing about “testing” Scientology last week. Now here’s a thing: there is an “HCOB” being bandied around on “New OTVIII”, you know, the one where some idiot states that Hubbard was Lucifer and Jesus was a pedophile etc. Now, in this “HCOB”, which many on here have commented is true, it states that if one runs these processes wrongly then one would “spontaneously combust”. So, can we have some volunteers to test the efficacy of this “HCOB” then? Try running the “processes” wrongly and see if it does actually happen. If we find just a shadow of your body (like in Hiroshima and all that) and a few ashes on the floor then we can say “Scientology works”, could we not? Volunteers step forward please!

6. Freeloader Bills: Yes, again this is somewhat true, but the full idea is that the bill does reduce by large percentages depending on how many years one has grafted for the Org, or it was so in my time at the Orgs. So if one signed a 5 year contract then if you had served 3 of those 5 years then your bill for services received would be reduced by 60%. On top of that many Freeloader Bills were reduced or even cancelled by either Execs or Regges wanting to get the person back on lines anyway. The original idea of such was to prevent people just joining staff to receive free auditing and training at the outset, which many who join the Technical Training Corps do of course. But also I have heard of and seen other companies in the “wog world” who do this as well. So here is the truth of this point, rather than just being presented with all of the negative aspects of this by Terra to bolster his overall stance here.

7. The “next level on the Bridge will solve one’s case” idea. Again, there is some truth in how Terra presents this idea as such is stated by some (ignorant or grasping) people in the Church, notably Registrars among others, and this false idea should have been stamped on years ago by Quals. If one knows the C/S Series then the idea is totally false. I recently came across a C/S who had been trained at Flag in the 90s who was stating to the PC that the PC’s somatics would eventually be resolved at the level of NOTs, thus ignoring the PC’s originations and continuing to audit the PC over bypassed charge. This is a complete falsehood. No one should be allowed on to the next level with unhandled somatics, as just one example, or anything unhandled for that matter.

8. Terra’s “contribute to the motion” juxtapositioning. Now this is Terra really going overboard here. This is Terra remembering a command from his Objective Processes (?) and “relating it” to his theme. This is not even the full command from one process of 1 Grade, and actually of course is designed to do the complete opposite of what Terra is saying, to un-hypnotize the person. So to imply that if a PC runs this command will make him into some sort of robot blindly following all other requests or demands from within the group is totally exaggerated. In fact this is almost criminal “journalism” from Terra. But he’s hoping that most of you reading it will not know what he is talking about and just see and say “Ooh! That sounds terrible!” Or Terra, has Mike given you a stat of “number of words written, drivel or not”?

9. Disconnection? Yes this could be handled better and is of course extremely exacerbated by the political nonsense that has taken over the Church for the last few decades. See – I am fair. But then most religions and social groups maintain the same sort of stance. My suggestion would be that if the disconnected person does not give the “disconnector” any problem about his or her religion then a connection can be maintained. In other words null, neutral, nothing adverse, and actually from both sides. And then there would be no need for disconnection. The thing is that on both sides of this equation the current scenario is or would generally not be the case. I mean can you imagine Wynski holding his tongue to his relatives? Or, to be fair, the person on the Church side not wanting to get his relative back on lines? But if the rule was that people on both sides should be bound by such an agreement then it might make it go away as a problem. The basic ethos of disconnection has been perverted by the political considerations now but not only from the Church. I don’t know though why Mike, who obviously has been affected by this with his family, isn’t pushing for a solution that is not going to happen otherwise, rather than just attacking the idea that as I say, most groups observe in varying degrees. Catholic Excommunication being one example and I am sure there are many others. But as I am not affected by such I am not sure that I can give a realistic comment on this, other than to say that one must strive for a better solution than just to say it should be cancelled. Would a Catholic write to and challenge the Pope about Excommunication? It’s not going to happen is it? What about (on a more ridiculous note) Facebook Groups? Disconnection is a fact of life but it can be better handled.

Well written. Much as I could state it, based on my 60’s and 70’s experiences. TC does hit out-points only. But then, he is not running an Out-Point Plus-Point list, wherein the auditor alternated from out-point to plus-point alternatively in order to get the PC back in balance (FNing). TC does seem to get a lot of by-passed charge from the group.and that may be therapeutic in itself.

Back then (60’s and 70’s) there were loads of out-points, but for many of us the plus-points carried more weight. IMO: It is hard to observe any plus-points in the CoS these days. My take is that the CoS is today nothing at all like what I experienced back then.

Thanks Jim, yes I actually do try to be balanced as the only way to sort all this out is to state what one believes is the truth, therefore when someone says such and such is bad, and it is (the truth), then I will agree with it, as I have often done here. But because I don’t follow the party line here I am usually labelled as an OSA agent or an UTR or a still-in, none of which I am, and in an attempt to shut me up and/or discredit me and my comments. I will undoubtedly receive more such comments on this post. There is more than ample proof from my many other comments that I have nothing to do with the Church and have not done since the 80s and I agree with your penultimate paragraph, although my time in the Church was later.

I blew the Sea Org because I had the urge to “procreate” with myself….if you know what I mean…(blushing).

I could not stop it when I was in the Sea Org and seemed to be possessed with some type of perverted urge.

I tried staff for many, many years but I was always making mistakes….now that I look back on it – I was a confused mess and could not run a business or really produce on staff….so I left that org and moved to Clearwater, thinking it was the town / Org I was involved in and I just needed to be surrounded by
Scientologists.

That made matters even worse. Scientologists are not friendly and seem to have missed withholds like crazy!

I now think people leave because they realize they have been duped, Scientology is a scam and it does not work.

Mr Foolproof: I am a wog and your answer to Terra didn’t make sense. It was kind of like you agreed with him but it wasn’t near as bad as he stated. Any degree of disconnection or robbery by force is wrong.

Kati: You need to re-read my comments. The fact that you are a non-Scientologist might well mean that my comments don’t make sense to you, but then if they don’t make sense to you, why do you come down on the side of Terra then?

Well, I’ve got to admit, Foolproof, you’ve got an answer for everything. It’s a great talent. You’re right about everything and every detractor “missed the point”, was a never in, or some other slight indicating they just didn’t get it. The ultimate Service Facsimile. Well done! LOL

Mike, surely you are not making me wrong and you and others right? Surely not eh?

YEs, I most certainly am.

This is YOUR standard. I don’t give a damn about this, but you surely do. And that’s why I was pointing it out to you.

As for my version of Solo NOTs — it’s much better than your version. Why? It’s much shorter and cheaper and gets you to the same EP in minutes that you have never been able to reach. But more importantly, and unarguably, it’s because what is true for me is what is true. That’s what KSW Dave said on TV last night. And he was quoting L. Ron Hubbard.

Peter,
Watch for FP on Dave’s new SuMP Tee Vee station. He/she/it no doubt can do a better job of neutralizing the naysayers than anyone else He can dredge up.

Always a plus to have a ‘once in’ but ‘maybe out’ but perhaps ‘still in’ person around to keep things stirred up. I say get FP and MR to have a discussion about the merits of the Cult Gone By. They both have answers to everything, just ask em.

This issue, which is debated on the link you post, has also been debated here and it is pointless doing it all again. I could list off the top of my head several points which totally invalidate the “HCOB” and many more if I were to think about it, and I will put only one, as I can’t be bothered to discuss this nonsense any longer, and to wit:

If one searches for this information on the Internet one finds eventually this story couched in an official looking “HCOB” which looks all very hunky dory etc. Now, how then was this “HCOB” and the other document (HCOB?) with the daft processes supposed to belong to the level, get smuggled off the Freewinds? Were OTVIIIs then allowed to take this apparently most-confidential “HCOB” in the history of Scientology, if it was true, home with them? If one knows anything about Advanced Org areas, then confidential HCOBs don’t leave the area, not after Copenhagen in 1983. Funny but at Flag you have to go through 3 secure doors with alarms, locked briefcases, no mobile phones with cameras, all clay demo labels are shredded, participants sec checked etc. etc. So, this “HCOB” was removed from the Advanced Courses area in a more secure area than Flag, after the recipient had received it, on a ship, down the gangplank, in a suitcase? Or did someone “compose” this “HCOB”? Well, let’s see the “original” then. The one that was smuggled off the Freewinds, down the gangplank in a suitcase. It must still exist then eh? Alright now?

You can write to the pope and challenge any and all doctrine The Roman Catholic Church has hundreds of priests that are classed as theologians and are constantly re-evaluating church policy and decisions and answering the thousands of questions the Catholic and non-Catholic public ask every year. FYI excommunication does NOT mean disconnection it means you are no longer able to receive holy communion or any other sacrament.

Hahaha! I could say “my old bete noire rears his ugly comments again” which I won’t, but just have done. (Wynski, who thinks literally, always loves trying to work out and diss my verbal conundrums (which aren’t really so.) The only “impulse” here is your meaningless reaction to my comments. And in your feverish haste to spew forth, make sure you get Terra’s name spelled correctly, or should we now call him “King Terra Kong-nita”! (No offense “King” Terra – haha!), but seemingly without the cognitions aspects.

And as I am constantly accused of being OSA by droll trolls, I will respond in kind by asking if Wynski has any affiliations (paid agent?) to the World Federation of Mental Health – he seems fond of psychiatric terms after all. Or how about a few pharmaceutical companies? Just saying…

Disconnection could be “handled better”? But then other religions have been and still are similarly guilty of enforcing disconnection from those considered heretical?

I would say this is less a defense of Scientology than an extremely good reason to look askance at all of the religions using low tone level methods to force beliefs and eliminate questions and doubts.

That this disgusting and contemptible “method used to control others” has been going on for eons, Foolproof, proves one thing:: it works. It is organized religion’s go-to stratagem for managing their parishioners and controlling what they say, do and think.

It works only short term though. Fear of losing a loved one will keep someone quiet with their head bowed in pretended belief. And that’s ALL these suppressive organizations care about – the short term.

Authentic belief and faith can not be produced thru force. The Roman Catholics and other major religions learned that lesson VERY well, which is the ONLY reason they’re still around today.

A measured, realistic response, but Foolproof, consider this: if the Church of Scientology were not causing an ENORMOUS amount of undeserved and unnecessary pain via its Disconnection, Policy, hardly anyone would give a damn about Scientology one way or another other than to debate, to specifically agree or disagree on its various auditing or training tenents and the efficacy or advisability or not of same.

Point being, applying gradients to “working out” the Disconnection issue is specious reasoning. Its “glib”. Because there are people here IN PAIN, Foolproof.

You’re bright and clever and I frequently agree with you as regards the points you make as to the necessity of making the correct distinctions between the various aspects of the Scientology religion and its practices.

And I personally never lost a loved one- to the cult. My losses of people came via their untimely deaths, before I joined Co$.

Here’s what I know, Foolproof:

No communication, ever, IS death, Foolproof. I KNOW that, and YOU know that.

Has the cult ever forced you to disconnect from a loved one – a spouse, lover, friend, a beloved child?

Has anyone, who meant EVERYTHING to you, ever been effectively ORDERED by the Church of Scientology to disconnect from you, to have nothing further to do with you, meetings, no contact, no comm – forever – and, cowed, by the cult’s various threats, did this loved one give in, and give you up, Foolproof – forever?

If so, then you know how that feels. If not, then you don’t know that particular agony.

Disconnection has to be stopped NOW.

For you and me and possibly anyone not personally devastated by this cruel policy, for those of us merely sympathetic to it, understanding of it, even intensely empathetic to it – for us, sure, there can be “gradients”.

But for those suffering from it, living with this pain ALL THE TIME, for THEM, there are NO GRADIENTS.

Stop it, NOW.

And if that means bringing down the whole shebang to do it, then, so be it.

Because, the injustice is TOO gross. The pain is TOO MUCH. It is all too cruel and unfair, and as such, not to be born.

Respectfully, that is the viewpoint you’re from which you can fail to look.

Always interesting to go back and forth with you and/or to read your back and forths with others here.

Aqua, most commenting, or reading here anyway, don’t really give a hoot about Disconnection nor does it affect the vast majority here. Disconnection is for many the simple, current and obvious Achilles Heel of Scientology but if that didn’t exist then they would find another reason in their haste to attack Scientology.

And no, I gave a possible solution which even Dave could consider. I am not for or against in this issue. After all he has revised other HCOBs so he could just as easily revise the Disconnection HCOB. (I can just see it now, if ever the Disconnection HCOB is revised people will be commenting that “Foolproof is working hand in hand with Dave” or “has great influence over COB”!)

But simply saying “stop” is not going to work. As I have cited before if one of your relatives was a Churchie and was constantly talking to you about getting back on Church lines, would you not “disconnect” from him/her? This is why Disconnection is not an invention of the Church of Scientology, but is evident in many aspects of life, from Facebook Groups to Golf Clubs, and even to old ladies’ sewing circles! Many commenters on here have posted that they want me to disappear – also a (minor) form of disconnection, etc.

Aqua, most commenting, or reading here anyway, don’t really give a hoot about Disconnection nor does it affect the vast majority here.

This is another example of the arrogant condescension that makes you so reviled here.

There are a LOT of people who “give a hoot” about disconnection here and it DOES affect a majority here.

Scientology’s version of disconnection has nothing to do with “disconnecting from a relative who constantly talks to you about getting back on church lines” — that IS a choice. Scientology enforces disconnection because they say so. You know that, and try to defend it anyway.

You probably argue that the Nazi’s didn’t invent concentration camps so they are just “evident in aspects of life” through history. And shutting down the Nazi concentration camps “is not going to work.”

Yep, there are a lot of people who WANT to disconnect from you. But that is different from me dictating that they have to do so by pronouncing you a Suppressive and blocking you from communicating to them. Or perhaps that’s fine because it’s my choice?

Again, you and others have misintrepreted my comments. Admittedly the phrase “doesn’t give a hoot” could be taken as if I am playing down or belittling the subject but that is not what was meant. What I meant was that say if there are 500 readers here, then 400 of them are not concerned either way on the issue, 100 are concerned and 30 or 40 of them are vehemently opposed and/or directly affected by it. The percentages may be more of course, but I don’t think even you can say that every person reading here cares one way or the other about disconnection. If you want to argue about percentages then fine, I concede.

But as I stated above, this issue can be better handled and as I am not affected by that I am not really in a position to give first hand comment about it. Which is why I only and at least suggested a compromise. Perhaps Dave might redress the Disconnection HCOB? Unlikely as we know, but also would my suggestion work with people who are rabidly anti-Scientology – that also is not going to work is it? A staff member won’t be saying: “I met Grandma yesterday for coffee and cake when she was having a break from standing outside my Org with banners saying nasty things about Scientology and spitting at the staff as we walked in!”

I really didn’t want to be drawn into this discussion and gave my rather innocuous opinion on it plus a suggestion to solve it (whether impractical or not) for which I am now being compared to a holocaust denier and Nazi which is very adroit positioning on your part Mike. Next up will it be “Foolproof executing ex-Scientologists ISIS-style”. So readers please disabuse yourselves of Mike’s subtle positioning of me as black-uniformed RTC person with SS and swastika badges.

And I am not sure that there are that many who “revile” me. Some or even many commenters do, granted. But only because I sometimes spoil their little glee fests. But then you want me here as some sort of example of the “opposition” or as some sort of focal point for vituperation or whatever, but then please do not misintrepret my remarks. But I “don’t give a hoot” about that.

As for the dude below using the F Word, well, he (or she) can carry on misintrepreting my remarks until the end of the fucking universe for all I care.

” Aqua, most commenting, or reading here anyway, don’t really give a hoot about Disconnection nor does it affect the vast majority here.”

Geeze McFly, you certainly woke up on the clueless side of the bed today. You need to get more drilling on perceptics good buddy. May I suggest signing up for a couple hundred intensives of the super duper thingy Dave has going down in Muddywater. And after you have lit up that pole on the fifth floor, come on back for round too!

“Aqua, most commenting, or reading here anyway, don’t really give a hoot about Disconnection nor does it affect the vast majority here. Disconnection is for many the simple, current and obvious Achilles Heel of Scientology but if that didn’t exist then they would find another reason in their haste to attack Scientology.”

Thank you for your very good comment on the agony those of us who have been disconnected from are experiencing at the hand of the “church,” Aquamarine. You said it so well. And thank you to Mike for putting this blog there every day and for all he does to bring down the house of cards so that one day maybe we’ll see our loved ones again.

“4. “Purpose”: Well ok, but what else or other group or technology are you going align yourself with? Answers on a postcard please.”

May I suggest…

Other group = Humanity
Technology = Being good to other human beings

“9. Disconnection? … But then most religions and social groups maintain the same sort of stance.”

Most religions and other social groups DO NOT require that members shun anyone who leaves the group. Only cults do that. It is not normal or acceptable behavior. It’s really sad that you think it’s even remotely OK.

FP – On Disconnection: Two points. One, you are incorrect about Catholic excommunication. While someone may be excommunicated from the church and prohibited from receiving the Sacraments, their family IS NOT required to abandon or disconnect from them.

Secondly, no family member or friend should be required to adopt a “neutral” stance if they disagree with the other’s religious beliefs or practices, just to maintain contact and avoid disconnection. In my family of five siblings, born, baptized, schooled and raised Irish Catholic, we have currently a devout Catholic, an atheist, an agnostic, a Methodist and a Wicca. We all have very strong opinions about our brother’s or sister’s beliefs and strongly “discuss” the merits and pitfalls of each. However there is one thing that is constant and that is our love and devotion for each other, despite our differences. Our family gatherings are always full of love and laughter. Too bad the practice of scientology does not permit such a rich and full quality of life.

Every time I read, see, or hear something about Scientology, I am monumentally grateful to both God Almighty and Jesus Christ, that I never joined that cult. I never even knew about it, until Tom Cruise did that infamous interview with Matt Lauer, claiming “You can be a Christian and a Scientologist”…which I knew from my Christian upbringing was not true in the slightest. The very first of the Ten Commandments, found in the 20th chapter of Exodus, reads as such – “You shall have no other gods before Me.” So if L. Ron Hubbard or anyone else claims to be divine, you can’t serve both them and the Judeo-Christian God; it just doesn’t work. Jesus later reiterated this, saying “No man can serve two masters – you will love one and hate the other, or hate one and love the other.” (Matthew 6:24)

By all non-Scientology accounts that I’ve seen, money was what L. Ron Hubbard worshiped. Wealth was his “god”, but it was powerless to save him…and it doesn’t save anyone else either.

Joshua, as I was Jesus of Nazareth in my most significant past life, may I say to you, bless you my son and thank you for your support. (and please read as soon as you can, The Book of Mormon, my latest best seller).

And may I also remind you Joshua to lay off the pulled pork sandwiches and shrimp fajitas … It’s in my first big seller, same book as you’ll find the ten commandments in … and no one said this would be easy (cheeseburgers are out too by the way ) …

He may well have been “worried” about money early on in the movement to ensure the movement’s survival but his later years were spent living in a very modest trailer van and he was – and as is also often said in non-Scientology texts – never living the life of Riley or anywhere near reflecting the amount of money that his books and works created. So your assumption that Hubbard personally was in it for the money is overall, false. You should look more at your church, protestant or Catholic, and how the vast wealth and vast land estates are owned by them and used before casting aspersions, or as you might say “let him without sin or vast estates or bank accounts, cast the first stone”. Your aspersion is based on a completely false assumption.

In my entire seventeen years in Scientology, I never took Hubbard’s words at face value. In making it to OT VIII, I was always waiting for the OT powers to arrive and they never did. For me Hubbard’s words about saving earth were just suggestions that would activate when he delivered something substantial to me in exchange for the money. In the end, I was far superior to Hubbard who was only copying occult principles from Blavatsky and Theosophy. Proof of this is the messed up state of the OT levels which are almost a total backwards view of reality. It is as if Hubbard had blinders on his eyes and on his head. Hubbard developed his religion at a time when the spiritualist movement sort of regained some momentum after WW II. I remember doing many of his drills when acting as a thetan. Hubbard merely created problems with his religion which he then tried to solve with his technology. The problem with Hubbard was that he only really created problems. His theoretical OT powers never arrived. Hubbard was making members delve into past lives because it was a lucrative source of money. I do not see any reason at all to even delve for one second into past lives and I am fundamentally Buddhist. It really make no sense to even think about the things that Hubbard taught me to think about. So glad to be out.

Man, I am fascinated with all that Hubbard-occult dabbling. I would love to talk to you about this stuff, especially cool because there aren’t too many people who stuck around to OTVIII. Have you ever thought about setting up a blog?

Yes, I thought about a blog but right now it is too much work. I am very pleased to detect that your enthusiasm is in line with mine concerning the occult roots of Scientology. In fact, after I read the occult sources and looked at my history in Scientology, I had an awakening.
If you want to talk, you can find my e-mail if you double click the funny avatar.

George, I’ve looked into Blavatsky/Theosophy a bit. Can you refer me to specific parts of her writings/philosophy that LRH took for the tone scale, ARC triangle, service facs, reactive mind, objectives, recall processes, (among other things).

I don’t mean generally, but specifically where she mentions things that would have led him to plagiarize her ideas as to the above subjects. *I have no doubt that LRH took ideas from Freud and others as a basis for some of the ideas that he claimed were totally original. But you keep mentioning Blavatsky as someone he allegedly sort of “rewrote” as Scientology and while her basic ideas on the spirit MAY have found resonance with him, can you explain her connection specifically as to the few Scientology subjects I noted above (which I would argue as fairly original ideas)?

Hi Joe,
That is the subject of an academic paper I am working on. The paper is currently in peer review. It answers your questions. I must follow procedures on this one. I would be happy to answer a few questions off the blog.

I think the major reason for staying in was that first “win”, then hoping that we’d get the wins promised on that NEXT course, or the NEXT procedure. It was supposed to get progressively more intense, bigger wins, more superpowers. Instead, it was more stupored powers; a lessening of what we started with when we jumped down that rabbithole.

Once in, a major part of staying was habit, nothing better to do at the moment. As long as it wasn’t THAT bad,I could make a bit of a game of the insanitty and enjoy that. When the game became unwinnable, during a stint in the RPF, I changed my game to being as little affected as possible and getting out. Toward the end, I had enough ME left to sometimes dramatize “this is just BS”,while outwardly complying sufficiently to not get TPTB too upset and winding up in an even worse situation, like the RPF’s RPF. Little things like completing a (required) meaningless run and collapsing on the floor wheezing. It helped that I started out in better shape than TPTB, easily showing “them” up. By then, my little game was to just get by and getting “them” to realize that busting on me wasn’t going to work as they wished. Finally, I was given leave to leave. AFAIK, There was no goldenrod on me;
I was never called to one of their “ethics” handlings and never saw any sign of “Fair Game”( which was anything BUT “fair”, by any measure).

Believe me Aqua, I know. I had a dog as a kid and she stood at the door near her leash four times a day … lucky we lived right across the street from Golden Gate Park! (and back in the 60s, who would have even THOUGHT to pick up the poop fercryinoutloud!)

Hi Terra Cognita, you forgot one other reason why some people stay in scientology:

Some scientologists are sadists. The sadistic sociopath gets off on harming others, like ripping wings off flies. Scientology provides a perfect home for the sadist.

“Compulsory disconnection is applied with cold and heartless indifference—more often than not, by a pimply-faced staff with an immature and underdeveloped empathy toward others.” Who would want to remain in an organization like that?

My time in S.O. was very brief and long ago. LRH was there when I was. I left no one behind when I routed out. However, my own personal aftermath still resonates loss in my fundamentalist family. I’ve tried for decades to rectify obeying the ancient sacred texts of my upbringing and Ron’s texts.

The following is how I state my position: The requirement for total allegiance without alternative prospects seems a requirement for ethnic cleansing. No one really benefits from a purity of the Whole. The Whole gains its power from its diversity. If not, the door to creativity is closed. Creating was the ultimate goal of a true Scientologist back then, as I understood it. Closing that “creativity” door, by relinquishing one’s own creativity, cancels out the “Change” in Ron’s definition of “Control” (Start-Change-Stop).

Scn’s elitism attempts to nullify any real science. It is flawed science because true science collects and collates all facts pertinent to the situation being studied. To study Man, all of man should contribute, should have a voice – not just the one who controls by domination, speaking to subjugate.

According to Scn/Ron, the best of humanity are beings who do not need bodies, do not live for their body’s baser instincts. Yet Ron, himself, seemed a man who needed lots of bodies with him, around him, beholden to him.

I cannot discount the value of what I learned in Scn that still holds true for me today. Neither can I wave a banner discounting everything else other than Scn itself.

“Closing that “creativity” door, by relinquishing one’s own creativity, cancels out the “Change” in Ron’s definition of “Control” (Start-Change-Stop).”

A great contradiction in all of Scientology. I remember that Hubbard got me to the point where I could not respond in an important business meeting after OT VII. Hubbard had a way of making modifications to what he copied. Had he taken Hindu scripture at face value, he could have produced a better religion.

This is just me but I think that if LRH had been more attractive he would not have been so “down” on bodies. He started out ok but became quite unattractive in his later years. If he had kept himself in better shape, more fit, and and in robust health and if he hadn’t been addicted or dependent or whatever on pills and/or alcohol – all of which can make a person kind of depressed because the body is mostly just a source of pain plus there’s no aesthetic left. It gives you nothing but pain, its unhealthy, AND its ugly. I mean, this has to be really depressing. Look, there’s no other way to say it: he really let himself go and, lacking the self discipline to climb up the physical health ladder again, bodies became “bad”. Oh, and sex was abberrative.. such nonsense!…probably because he wasn’t getting any. Just a theory.

Looking back at 30 years in, I’ve had to ask myself this question many times. I have no one single good answer. Here’s an excerpt from my soon to be published book “Fractured Journey” in which I offer one possible explanation:

“I can only speculate as to why we continued to stay with the Church. Perhaps we had entered into a kind of abusive relationship, the kind that battered women seem to have difficulty ending. Maybe like an abused wife, we’d become dysfunctionally dependent on the Church to the point that we’d convinced ourselves that the abuse wasn’t all that bad. And just like the abused wife, maybe we also convinced ourselves that the Church of Scientology would reform its abusive ways. “

I look forward to your book too. Your analogy about being in an abusive marriage is why I can understand what keeps people stuck in a bad marriage (or Scientology) so I would add that many stay to protect someone else. As long as it’s just you taking the brunt and basically able keep them out of the way, you just stay. When you leave that’s a very dangerous time but worth the risk to break free, and in the end well worth whatever you had to do.

To share a thought; consider a person who enters the cult with a prior history of abuse as a child–especially when pleas for help went ignored. Such people are preconditioned to associate physical and/or mental abuse with “love” and “acceptance.”

During a recent conversation with an advocate from a women’s crisis center, she mentioned how culture and upbringing play important roles in repeat victimization.

She offered a rather profound actual example:

Six-year old girl complains to mother, teacher or other authority: “Johnny keeps lifting up my skirt, punching me and calling me names on the playground.”

Adult response to child: “That’s BECAUSE HE LIKES YOU.”

Think of all the possible conclusions a young mind might draw — and the behavior patterns that would emerge from that.

Title, when I was a little girl I had very long hair that I used to wear down my back. Due to alphabetizing of surnames, throughout 2 years of elementary school the same boy sat behind me.. He’d tease me by pretending to cut off my hair. He’d grab a chunk of it and make a pretend scissor out of his middle fingers, like he was cutting it. He’d also poke me lightly in the back with a pencil or a ruler and then deny that he had. Sometimes the teacher would catch these things and tell him to stop, and he would, for a while. Sometimes I’d lose my temper and turn around and say, “Will you STOP!!!” Then he would laugh, delighted that he had made me turn around and yell at him. He’d say my nickname and sing song it together with rhyming silly nonsense to make me even madder. . I told my mother and she advised me to ignore it, that he just liked me. I did not come from an abusive background. I was a very much loved only child. I didn’t have teasing brothers to use as reference material but I trusted my mother on this. She had had brothers, after all. I figured she knew what was what, as re the mysterious motivations of boys.

I don’t think there’s a single answer for most things of a spiritual nature, good or bad. Death I suppose comes close. The future is the currency of life imo.
When I got out of the army, I had genuinely forgotten the reason I signed up. A fishing buddy of mine is a long term serving policeman and he doesn’t really believe his reasons for joining anymore, they are a blurry haze to him. He has something in common with my doctor in that they both claim they don’t know how to do anything else. I pretty much survive on my wits and with my wife get involved with all sorts of ventures, buying and selling etc and now live on a beautiful spot on the coast with not many people about. We see it as normal and I suppose fortune does favour the brave to a fair degree. Being caught in a rut… never understood it at a personal level, yet I see & hear lots of people complain about it.
Scientology was a huge disappointment, but I did get a few things out of it.

Good point. There are many reports of people being physically intimidated and blocked from leaving, if not actually restrained – but what is it if people larger than you block a door or exit, and won’t move unless you force the issue? The Scientology Auditor’s Code says, for instance:

9. Never permit the preclear to end the session on his own independent decision.

In practice, Auditors are trained to block the door to the auditing room if a PC wants to leave during a session, and to physically intimidate them, if not actually restrain the PC.

#9 was a source (among many other points) of open debate and discussion in the academy when I was getting trained. Oldtimers (1950’s) said it was necessary to restrain PCs when getting 100’s of hours of Objectives: I called that insanity, and they did not disagree.

But, ‘you have to understand’ Hubbard had said a Pc would try to blow on Objectives. So no matter what the PC said or did, the auditor was to push on . The supervisor assured me that those days are over, we know better now, about overruns and out gradients, and selecting only willing PCs, etc, etc. I said then and I say now: The moment a person physically restrains me is the moment I would dismantle them on my way out the door. At my current age I probably could not succeed, but i would try.

Lisa was forcibly restrained against her will—– that was kidnapping. She was run on the Introspection Rundown for DAYS without food or water—- that was not auditing in any sense of the word, it was torture and murder most foul. At the hands of david miscavige..

And not just her. That was my reaction: “No locked doors?” Many accounts by former Scientologists have locked doors in them, including Leah’s. Also bars on windows, security guards preventing exit, and teams of people who chase you around the globe if you do leave. If it weren’t for the false imprisonment, I wouldn’t consider Scientology quite so sinister. I know the exes say a lot of them wouldn’t leave anyway. Maybe true. But until they’ve been given an actual exit, with no Scientologist watching, I’ll take that point with some skepticism. I think if Shelley Miscavige were given a true opportunity to leave, she would probably leave. Having a Scientologist (and/or bought-off) cop come in, while surrounded by other Scientologists, does not count as an opportunity.

Leaving Scientology is not easy. Even after we’ve left, look at all the ex-Sxientologists here, on YouTube like Steve Mango, on Tony’s blog, and other online forums. It’s a life resonance you can’t turn off once it’s in tune with your ‘theta’.

For me personally, it was my first experience with organized religion. I was an atheist until I became a Scientologist. Leaving it was extra hard because it was my religion. The one thing that got me to leave was that I was being financially targeted by the ED for more and more donations. No matter how much I gave, they kept asking for more and more. My final realization was that the constant coercion to give more money would never end. It would and did financially ruin me, my religion forced me into massive debt. It was an easy decision to leave when I thought of my kids future, simply having a future that didn’t result in them living out of a van because I lost everything due to the ED of the church of Scientology pushing for more and more money. I am sure she was pushing so hard just to keep the lights and water on in the org, but that doesn’t justify ruining lives. I did briefly go back because I didn’t want all that money go to waste. It was a complete waste of time, as they put me on a basics course and wouldn’t even let me back on SRD after buying all services through clear. Yeah, no way their promise of going clear in 6 months was real. They flat-out lied.

Left and never went back. Had to sell my house to pay the debt caused by a money hungry ED. Lost a high paying job, and had to leave the state due to being in massive debt. They have no empathy or compassion for the lives they ruin. Instead they spy on and fair game former members into further suppression. Absolutely zero compassion. They are very lucky I am able to turn the other cheek. I will say though that there are criminals in their organization that need to be jailed, and this isn’t just the former guardians office people.. active Scientologists today. What they did to me was criminal, including tresspassing at my work and I have reason to believe they broke into my house.

And yes, many active “upstat” criminals are still proudly “flourishing and prospering” for their crimes to this very day.

To say I’m so sorry you went through that is a gross understatement. It sounds like feeble encouragement for me to say, “May you and your family find peace and healing here with us.” I hope you can sense my intention — those words mean so much more.

Your quote: “It’s a life resonance you can’t turn off once it’s in tune with your ‘theta’.” Speaks volumes.

A person entering scn and experiencing some “gains in life”, however you want to describe it, might look at KSW as facual without critically noticing how dictatorial it is. The last four items give rise to Hubbard and the organization attacking “squirrels” (splinter groups) and critics. I just “did” scn and keeping it working as far as defending it or keeping it “pure” was the job of someone else. “Squirrels” weren’t my problem – laughter

My above comment was an addition to the wikipedia entry below which got “lost in transit”… I thought it might be useful to a casual reader unfamiliar with scn jargon.

Keeping Scientology Working (often referred to by Scientologists as KSW) is a Church of Scientology policy letter that serves as the keystone for a series of related policy letters written by church founder L. Ron Hubbard.[1][2][3][4]

Dated 7 February 1965, it lays out ten points concerning the exact application and preservation of “Standard Tech” in Dianetics and Scientology, and the eradication of “non-standard tech”, more commonly referred to in Scientology as “squirreling.”

It is one of the most important and oft-repeated policies in Scientology. It was the principal subject discussed by Tom Cruise in his leaked video of January 2008

“Having the correct technology”: Which Hubbard asserts has been done.
“Knowing the technology”: He claims many do know this.
“Knowing it is correct”: Hubbard says this comes from application and observation.
“Teaching correctly the correct technology”: He claims this is being done worldwide.
“Applying the technology”: Again, he says this is already happening.
“Seeing that the technology is correctly applied”: He says instructors and supervisors do this.
“Hammering out of existence incorrect technology”: The first problem area according to Hubbard, where he says it is a “weak point” and is only handled by a few.
“Knocking out incorrect applications”: Hubbard says this isn’t worked on hard enough.
“Closing the door on any possibility of incorrect technology”: Hubbard says this is “impeded by the ‘reasonable’ attitude of the not quite bright.”
“Closing the door on incorrect application”: Hubbard says this is “seldom done with enough ferocity.”[5]
L. Ron Hubbard claims that the main stumbling blocks he listed all pertain to “incorrect technologies” and “incorrect applications” listed in the last four items. He claims that the reasons for the problems with the last four items are due to poor certainty that the “technology” works, people with low IQs, people trying to “defend themselves against anything they confront”, and “the bank” (Scientology jargon which basically refers to the “reactive mind” that supposedly contains negative memories), which defends itself by trying to “knock out the good and perpetuate the bad.”[6]

Hubbard states, “I know what a group of people will do and how insane they will go in accepting unworkable ‘technology’. By actual record the percentages are about twenty to 100,000 that a group of human beings will dream up bad technology to destroy good technology.” He also states, “See that Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten above are ruthlessly followed and we will never be stopped. Relax them, get reasonable about it and we will perish.” The remainder of the document is further justifications for why “incorrect technologies and applications” have to be ruthlessly hammered out of existence to keep Scientology working, including one example where Hubbard claims that a failure to do this for one student of Scientology meant that “his wife died of cancer resulting from physical abuse.”

As an aside Hubbard says “By “actual” record the percentages are. . . .blah. blah”. Yet another statistic Elron pulls out of his arse. I recently listened to a TED talk by Celeste Headlee, “10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation”. She suggests that if the impulse to use “actually” in conversation comes up you better put on the brakes and shut up. When you think about it “I actually believe . . .” is rather a conversation stopper, or in Hubbard’s case a thought stopper.

If I say “I believe . . . ” that invites the other person to say what they believe. If I say “I actually believe . . .” that puts the other person in a contradictory position to me if they believe differently since I’ve added certainty to my statement. Another tidbit I came acrross somewhere is that in the workplace adding smiley faces to memos actually causes . . . oops . . . in the workplace adding smiley faces to memos causes some exeutives to devalue the memo.

I also came across a “symptoms of a cult” article but it was soon after I left. The general summary in my mind was that scn expounded “We know everything about everything. We’re right and everybody else is wrong.” I was “blown for good” and didn’t look back. (Until I watched Going Clear and I was back down the rabbit hole again from a different perspective – lol)

Wow Terra this is so spot-on and so well written and SO true!!! I went through all of this and making the realization is earth shattering, but when the cord was broken, it was a huge relief despite the fact that I lost my son and family members. Thank you for putting this in such a great format. It is great to be FREE finally from all this BS.

On a different note – Mike, Gary & I could not make it to Clearwater for the get-together, but I will be there in spirit. I hope to finally meet my Aftermath cohorts in the near future and maybe a similar Aftermath get together can be organized in southern California soon. Have fun all of you!

Mike, et al, I love you guys! Though we’ve never met, I’ve seen and read your stories and watched your vids, and if anyone deserves the good things in life, you folks do! So, raise a littlle hell tonight in Clay’s bar, though when it comes to ‘hell’ you’ll never match the competition that’s all around you in Clearwater. Warm greetings from still snowy Vermont (which I’m leaving for good in a few weeks), and please know that I’m with you in spirit. God bless.

I play in a swing band. Maybe some day you’ll get a little musical accompaniement from the “Anti-Jive Aces!”

Bratttleboro. Only town in the MEST universe with that name. Haven’t gotten up your way in recent years. I’ve been gigging a lot south of the border (without a visa!). Time to move on, though. Thanks for saying hello, neighbor.

Please do a “Mt Killington Rundown” a black diamond trail for me. You can just do it “exterior with full perceptions” with the gains you achieved through your
“New Oh-Ski powers” and I’ll experience it in the “theta universe.”

Bix, I’m bummed to see that you’re taking off – but I assume that I should be happy for you, and I hope you’re going someplace warmer (and less muddy). I’d always hoped to run across you at a gig some time when I was over your way, and get to say “You look like an SP! What are your crimes?”

Yo Fool,
Are you looking for help from the Aftermath Foundation? Thinkaboutit, it may be a good move. Save your ass and move on up to three course meals.

Yo OSA,
Same goes for you. Instead of sitting on yer arse reading the comments here you might actually create a life for yourself. Look around folks, what do you see happening to old staffers? Where do they go when Dave is done with them?

Well, they don’t get a farewell dinner with speeches in their honor and a gold watch!

Probably someone wakes them up at 4 AM, gets them dressed, slaps $500 and a 1-way bus ticket into their hand, and spirits them out of the building before the other slaves wake up. “So long…make it go right…seeya!…”

If the elderly SO is without friends or family the ticket is probably taking him to a high tax blue state where shelter is a right, not a privilege.

But now, with the Aftermath Foundation, and as many people as possible supporting it or contributing to it in one way or another, the unwanted, off-loaded elderly SO will have more options (and yes that was an intentional gratuitous plug I just worked in there 🙂 )

TC, this is a subject that has many facets. Thanks for bringing it up.
The issue of leaving the cult and how it affects ones business and social networks warrants its own article. Losing friends who one has known most of their lives is huge.
And losing ones main purpose in life can leave a hole in ones life that’s not easy to fill.
Each area warrants its own article.
I think The Aftermath Foundation will go a long way in helping make the task of leaving easier. And your articles have also helped many of us immensely.

Terra, That is a truly spot on description of what tethers one to the cult. I experienced it all and in the end walked away after I confronted the fact that the results I’d been hoping to achieve didn’t happen in 40 years of trying and spending about $300,000.00. The fact that it all just did not work and I had so foolishly given so much was a huge thing to confront; but doing so and taking full responsibility for it all gave me more freedom and happiness than I could hope for if I stayed in. Good to be gone.

Glad you’re out, Glen. We’re ALL glad you’re out. I got away rather cheap: $6,000. And I never attested to the so called state of Clear, even though I did all the grades. Why? Because NOTHING had changed in me. At that point I knew it was all make believe.

I hear many criticisms of Objectives. Together with a comm course, I found objectives the single biggest factor in raising my awareness or consciousness, which scn for all its faults did achieve. I just don’t like all the strings attached. In many respects, I still look quite favourably at my scn experience. I just wish (and REALLY wish financially) I hadn’t carried on to OT levels.

I read about a person who was being recruited for the Sea Org and told them he had taken LSD. The SO recruiter tried to tell him that maybe he was mistaken, that what he had taken could have been something else, not LSD. When he assured her that it was LSD, he was reluctantly labeled “4F.” Now this strikes me as totally unethical and “against policy.” Obviously, the recruiter had no way of verifying what drug he had taken, but was willing to stretch things to get th guy in the SO.

And here’s a question: back in the day, I took quite a few psychedelics. My first trip was on morning glory seeds (oh, yes, the ‘heavenly blues” and “pearly gates” varieties were genuine psychedelics). I also tripped on peyote and DMT, but somehow never took psylocybin. All of these were powerful psychedelics and did the same things LSD did.

Was Hubturd’s policy about LSD exclusive of other pschedelic drugs? Did he even know about their existence? I doubt that he ever read Aldous Huxley’s “Doors of Perception,” about Huxley’s very profound experience with mescaline. So one could have tripped many times on other psychedelics and still gotten into the Sea Org – in which case the policy was, like so many of his policies, useless.

I also didn’t have the money. However, I was drunk on the Kool aid and persuaded myself this was my one chance in eternity to be a Big Being. I begged, borrowed and stole (actually I got credit from my bank) to afford what I knew I couldn’t really afford unless I got Super Powers from the OT levels to pay it back. I didn’t. Case closed.

I did the solo course, so I knew about meter reads. I had all the materials, so I did the commands and studied all correct theory.

My first state of mind was a little trepidation as I still had Ron’s tech on a pedestal, not very high, but I still thought maybe OT3 would make me sick.

I ran BTs, clusters everyday for hrs and hrs 3 to 4 weeks.

What I observed and conclusions:

1) I did not freewheel or die of pneumonia. Conclusion: Ron was full of shit and sought to elevate OT3 and make it that only Ron knew how to not die and get through OT3 implant — Altitude Instruction

2) my ep of running the processes was that I realized OT3 was a delusion that Ron cooked up. It was running OT3 that was the final “blow” for me. The mystery sandwich was gone.

I found the OT3 auditing boring. I contacted my own thoughts and feelings and realized Ron was projecting his mind and delusional past on us. He projected his “case” on us. And because all critics of Scientology and Ron are criminals, Scientologists can’t question anything Ron says about a PC’s past.

I’m sure people had some realizations doing the level. It’s almost impossible to not have cognitions when we turn our minds within to look.

Brian – This is a very interesting and to the point clarification of what you experienced on “OT3”. Thank you for sharing this. The “big mysteries” which lie ahead was a sticking point in scn and your two comments here simplify and clarify one of them. Thanks again.

Brian (continued) – I’ve been reading the scn blogs for three years and so far your description of “running” OT3 is the best I’ve seen. Probably others have done so which I didn’t see.

I had a general idea in mind which was this. We all have personality traits adopted from parents, teachers, coaches, book and movie heroes and so on. I thought maybe addressing these traits as belonging to entities was part of or entirely what people were doing on OT3. Your description is specific and to the point of what was addressed.

As long as scn discussion continues, OT3 will come up. Ron’s “Wall of Fire” is perhaps the greatest mystery he presented. With your permission I’d like to delete the mention of Foolproof and repost your two comments in the future when appropriate.

True believers will insist you didn’t do it right. The general public probably passes the whole thing off as science fiction. However, I think people still in, under the radar or on the fence would appreciate your more specific description.

Important Quotes

If the org slumps during this transition period, don't engage in "fund raising"
or "selling postcards" or borrowing money. Just make more income with Scientology.
L Ron Hubbard From HCOPL URGENT ORG PROGRAMMING

"We own a tremendous amount of property. We own a tremendous amount of material and so forth, and it keeps growing.
But that’s not important. When buildings get important to us, for God sakes, some of you born revolutionists will you please blow up central headquarters".
L Ron Hubbard Lecture 31 Dec 1960

"Personal integrity is knowing what you know. What you know is what you know and to have the courage to know and say what you have observed".- LRH from Personal Integrity

"It is necessary to happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists of professing to believe what he does not believe." Thomas Paine

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Martin Luther King

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - Martin Luther King

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

“Communication is the universal solvent” - L Ron Hubbard

“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.” Thomas Paine

"Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth." William Faulkner

"The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis." Dalai Lama